"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Tuesday, 11 April 2017

14:04 - The money has already been spent by the Town and Region. I'm sure they've already ear marked the development money over at the Magna property and they're not moving out for another 5 yrs. Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 10 April 2017 at 20:50

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That's a given. Provincial rules require five year master plans for every service provided .Development charges arecalculated on the basis of the plans. That was the provincial solution to exercising control of municipal greed

Just take it from developers. They can pay for it out of their profits. But of course they don't New home buyers pay for it. The. The rest of us pay for the operation of their facilities. There is no incentive to do

more with less.

For example, there's far more down in arenas than time used. We used to rent prime time to keep costs down for minor hockey. We were up at 5 in the morning at the week-end with the youngest kids to play hockey.

Nothing stands in the way of bureaucratic growth now. It just grows and grows.

An army of firefighters are needed to man facilities paid for with DCs. Sleeping quarters, kitchens, recreation and lounge facilities must be provided for when they are not putting out fires. Which is ....almost always.

Policemen do not sleep in stations but they have cruisers,computers,uniforms, guns,boats snowmobiles helicopters and RVs and officers trained to operate all the toys.

When I first participated in public affairs, Professional Firefigters Association (the union) were in a labour dispute about firehall maintenance. I think it was in Scarborough. The argument was "professional firefighters " should not have to maintain firehalls. Competitions were held between firehalls for the nicest flower beds . It was how time was occupied while not fighting fires which was most of the time.

When I was first elected, North York had recently carried out a study to determine how much time a firefighter actually spent fighting fires. It was 18 minutes in a year. The question was posed, why were

dress uniforms needed. They don't fight fires in dress uniforms.

Now they spend four days living at the firehall and ten not working at all. Except for the private businesses operated in spare time to augment their living.

I describe reality behind costs because police and firefighter service is the greatest expense, Wages and benefits , settled by arbitration. impact other compensation levels particularly at upper limits .

At lower levels ,service by contract,people without benefits or security, working side by side are not treated equally.

Development charges permeate the system of municipal services forever and a day and to the moon and back.